§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps Her Majesty's Government has taken, other than seeking intergovernmental assurances, to ensure that military equipment sold abroad by British companies is not used for(a) internal repression and (b) acts of extra-border military aggression. [30831]
§ Mr. Tony LloydI refer to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary to my hon. Friend the Member for East Ham (Mr. Timms) on 28 July 1997,Official Report, columns 26–29, in which he announced criteria to be used in considering licence applications for conventional arms exports. These specified inter alia that an export licence would not be issued if the proposed export might be used for internal repression or aggressively against another country. All applications since then have been considered against these criteria.